Sands of Time

Time is fleeting through my hands,
Minutes, hours, days, and years,
Testings, tumults, trials, and tears,
Daily duties, life’s demands--

Hold them, hold them! Cries my heart
To my loved ones by my side,
Give me time with you to abide--
Grace declares it is time to part.

Time is fleeting,
The day is done,
I cannot hold them,
Minutes speeding
One by one.

Precious moments
Slipping by,
Ecstasies,
A laugh, a sigh;
Here you are,
There you go;
Memories--
I love you so!

Let them go, these swifting hours,
They are His, they are not ours--
Teach my heart to let them go.
Let them go-- oh, let them go!
I need you Jesus, I need you so!
Hold me close, Eternal one--
Life alone is in the Son.

Eternity, eternity!
Life that is,
And is to be,
Grace extending
Now to me.
Hold me Jesus,
Hold me fast,
Time is speeding
Oh, so fast!

Hours and minutes,
Days and years,
Daily triumphs,
Daily tears.

Let them go--
Oh, let them go--
If time stood still
Where would I be?
This life is not
Eternity!

Nonsense for Tonight

I'm not growing old
I'm growing mature;
I used to know things,
Now I'm not sure.
I'm living in changes,
No flesh is secure;
Life is not static,
Times never endure;
There are certain heart-aches
Only Heaven can cure;
Trials come and the testings
To make my heart pure;
I'm not growing old
I'm growing mature.

Oct. 25, 1988

Waiting

Phases of the moon
Waxing and waning;
Life in the Spirit
Striving and straining;
Faith is the answer—
Patiently waiting.

Blackness of night
Weeping and wailing,
Nothing seems right,
Enemies assailing—
Morning dawns bright,
Hope is renewed—
Patiently waiting.

Nothing to do,
Nothing to say;
Why am I living
From day to day?
Glory to Jesus,
He knows I am clay!
Patiently waiting.

Born of the Spirit,
Born by the word,
Rejoicing in hope—
Patience a sword.
I know I am His—
Fruit – His reward:
Patiently waiting.

Oct. 25, 1988

A Snail's Trail

A little snail
    With his house on his back
Left a silver trail
    Os his shining track.

So here am I
    In this house of clay
And time goes by
    From day to day-
At a snail's pace,
    As one might say.

Shall I leave behind
    A silver thread
To mark my path
    When I am dead?

Oct. 12, 1992

Paradoxes

We live – when we are dead.
We receive – when we give.
We ascend – when we descend.
We bless – when we are cursed.
We are forgiven – when we forgive.
We are meek – when we are disgraced.
We are whole – when we are broken.
We are loved – when we love.
We believe – when we doubt ourselves.
We work – when we rest.

All this is the grace of the Lord.

June 20, 1990

Yesterdays

On the upward trail
We stop to look back;
How many valleys!
How many stones!
How many bridges!
There were terrible ledges,
So narrow the path--
And unseen angels guided our feet.

There were beauties too
Where the sun broke the darkness,
And victories beyond human thought;
Impossibilities for our feeble strength
Where we could only marvel
And follow our Guide
Always onward and upward.

And looking backward
We see that our Guide
Has never left us.
He is giving us, now, eyes to see
The way He has led us
Is the way to His goal--
So we have faith to go on.

May 5, 1991

Reality

Behind the door
I made a face,
I stamped my feet,
I said some words
I won’t repeat.

And then I said,
I must be real,
I must confess,
I’ll tell the truth
Just how I feel.

The accuser said,
“You hypocrite,
Tell it straight,
Take off that mask
And show your hate.”

But then I laughed--
I knew he lied;
He didn’t know
That wasn’t me,
For I had died.

April 29, 1991

The Foreigner

I’m a stranger in this land;
So many things I don’t understand;
So many customs, so many words;
So many man things I think absurd.

I look about with pilgrim’s eyes
And do not want what others prize;
While passing through I cannot rest,
I see so many lives oppressed.

I see a people going mad
Seeking things they wish they had,
And being slaves to social rule;
But I belong to another school;

Another dream, another goal,
Another hope, another role,
Another tribe, another king,
Another mind in everything.

So I’m a stranger in this land,
By faith I wait for His command;
Nobody knows the glory I see
And the crown of life awaiting me.

Sept. 28, 1992

Trifles

These little things
That seem so big--
These tiresome thoughts
Like gnats and flies
That buzz your ears
And bug your eyes--

These little things
Shall pass away,
These crazy trials
That come each day,
In heaven’s eyes
Are child’s play.

1984

Longings

My heart is like a wounded bird
That longs to soar on high;
Its wings are out, but deep within
That yearning urge to fly.

My heart is like a withered leaf
The wind will blow away--
It has no use, no way to bless,
No will to work, no will to stay.

My heart is like the panting hart
That seeks the water-springs-
Oh, Lamb of God, come fill my life,
I want a heart that sings.

1982

Iconoclast

The graven images are piled high
Amid the wreckage of many generation-
Ancestral ambitions, traditions of men;
Dreams--
There in a corner of the room
Gathering dust--
Together they lie
Fragments,
Broken,
Receptacles for spiders,
Ants, and worms.

There lie my own idols--
Days gone by
They occupied my heart,
Caused innumerable
Pains and sighs,
Passions,
Storms of tears--
Wasted hours--
Dreams.
Now they lie in a heap
With the others
Causing not even a
Passing sigh,
As I quickly brush
Them aside.

For I have come to a
Living vision,
A life-giving hope,
A life beyond dreams.

June 23, 1964

Retrospection

I find a deep contentment in my soul
For all the sunny hours I’ve richly spent,
As I’ve watched the calendar unroll
I’ve taken each new pleasure as it’s sent.

I’ve never questioned happiness, or peace,
Or love, or hope, or gentle restful things,
For all my interest in life would cease
If I should lose the spirit each one brings.

But all the dark, despairing hours arise
To fill my soul with questionings and fear,
And sullen doubts appear before my eyes
To darken everything that I held dear.

I never wish to live those hours again,
But one of those is worth the other ten.

1939

See-Saw

When I am up
You are down,
When I am down
You are up!

Now I begin to see
The reason for this see-saw,
If I were down and you were down
There’d be no way to get us up!

Knowing

Some things I know--
Some things I don’t--
Some things I wish I knew;
Some things I wish I didn’t!
Some things I wish I knew
But know I shouldn’t!
Some things I ought to know,
(More’s the pity!)
Some things I think I know,
(What stupidity!)
Some things I’ll never know,
Mercifully hidden.
Some day I’ll know as I am known
No longer waiting things forbidden.

1985

Ambition

My soul shall not a prison be,
    Nor yet an empty shell,
God grant that it shall ever be
    A place where God may dwell.

I do not seek a lonely bliss
    Where rapture floods my soul,
But let Christ’s flowing, pulsing life
    Relate me to the whole.

Aug. 1, 1964

Present Tense

What happens tomorrow depends upon today,
The power of faith when you start to pray--
In a certain sense eternity is now.
When you walk with the Lord he shows you how
To face that mountain that seems so tall,
And gives the assurance that the giants shall fall.

The thoughts of today are shaping tomorrow,
Preparing the soul for joy or sorrow,
But the mystery of hope is not cause and effect,
It is in our power the evil to reject.

Hope gives the patience to rest in today,
And experience provides us another way
For He is salvation full and complete,
He is sufficient each trial to meet.

March, 1985

Patience

Patience is doing nothing.
Patience is faith in action.
Patience is dependance on God.
Patience is waiting -- waiting -- waiting--
Patience is the grace of God given to wait.
Patience is a fire burning.
Patience is dying to the flesh.
Patience is denying the flesh.
Patience is ambition in quiescence.
Patience is humility.
Patience is endurance.
Patience is meditation.
Patience is a quality of time.

Patience is correcting mistakes.
Patience is listening to others.
Patience is putting pieces together in a jig-saw puzzle.
Patience is sitting in a dentist’s office waiting for your turn.
Patience is planting seeds.
Patience is watching old things being destroyed to make another.
Patience is training a child.
Patience is living day by day doing trivialities.
Patience is forgiving before repentance.
Patience is watching someone learn to do a job.
Patience is reading through this list of patient examples.

July, 1990

My Times

For me, I see my times are in His hands.
This morning He gave me a new version of Solomon’s times,
For these are my times to observe by the Holy Spirit.

There’s a time to pray, and a time not to pray.
A time to work in the Spirit and a time to wait in the Spirit
A time to seek the Lord and a time for Him to seek me;
There’s a time to sing, and a time to meditate.
A time to talk to Him and a time to listen to Him;
A time to laugh, and a time to weep with those that weep;
A time to repent and a time to receive pardon;
A time to have fellowship and a time to be alone with Him;
There’s also a time to fall-- a time to see His grace;
A time to travail for Him to give birth:
A time to see clearly the goal and the vision,
And a time to walk blindly in the hope that is not seen;
A time to submit from the heart says, “ No”;
There’s a time to despair of anything going right;
And a time to rejoice in the answer to prayer;
There’s a time to die to self and a time to resurrect in Him.
Oh, God, make me to know my times.

March 29, 1983